I take a jab, pursue passport, visa and peace at home

 My wife's nephew saw old people like me getting Covid vaccines at a farm near our house. It was 7 p.m. on Sunday and we rushed to the farm. The vaccines ended at 7:30 p.m., and we just made it. Officials had the folks line up in single file, and all but a few people behind us were told to come back the next day. My wife Phuong got her vaccine at this location earlier in the day, but at that time she was told I was too old for AstraZeneca. Someone must have had a change of heart and I was in line waiting. My wife did my paperwork and after a little pushing, shoving, apologizing, and cutting in line from a few folks, all turned out well. (Lessons in queueing would be appropriate here.) After I got my shot, monsoon rain poured down, but my wife found the umbrella she left at the farm earlier in the afternoon when she got her vaccine. Fortuitous, indeed. My wife's side effects included soreness in her back, stomach discomfort, fatigue and headache. I only had a mild headache, but I don't know for certain if it was from the vaccine or from missing my after-dinner coffee. We will return for a second shot in 8 to 12 weeks. There were long lines at the farm for a few days after we got our shots.
Next up was the renewal of Joanna's passport. Because of the strict lockdown, Phuong had a friend in Ho Chi Minh City go to the embassy for us, and he paid the fee for the passport that we mailed in for renewal, and he also paid to have EMS deliver it to our house. We reimbursed him, of course, and paid him a modest fee for his services. It would require lots of paperwork and perhaps a quarantine, I guess, for one of us to go to the embassy with Covid still roaring and the lockdown in full effect. We don't know when the passport will be delivered. The embassy sent me an email saying EMS won't be delivering until the lockdown is lifted. There's talk that a limited lifting of the lockdown could happen next week. We need the renewed passport to get Joanna's resident card, which I'm told is required to leave the country. The resident card simply needs to be paid for at this point. Simply? Nothing is simple with Covid -- here and everywhere, no doubt. 
Last, our waiver application is about to be sent to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) by our lawyer either this week or next. If approved, my wife should get her visa to enter the U.S. after more paperwork, sweat, and tears involving the embassy. If rejected .... well, we'll see. Covid is raging in the U.S. even worse than here, and vaccines are happening now in Vietnam. Almost everyone is on board to get jabbed and I'm not really sure resistance or refusal to get the vaccine is an option here. I'm pro-vaccine, of course, so it's not an issue for me.
The lockdown is getting to my kids a little. Joanna and Elijah have been at odds over toys lately. Mostly, Elijah wants to grab Joanna's stuff and run away, and she'll go a little ballistic if he succeeds. But he was not well for a few days, throwing up and dealing with a low-grade fever. I must have taken his temperature about 20 times, driving my wife crazy. Elijah didn't mind because he loves gadgets and remotes of any kind, and the digital thermometer we have was exciting for Little E, who loves all things electronic. When Elijah was ill, Joanna was so sweet to him. She's got a wee bit of temper and is one of a kind to be sure, but she can be so kind and caring when the chips are down. We continue with her schooling, focusing on insects and animals  (that has to pass for my science instruction), math and reading comprehension. We're on a second go-around with bees, learning about beeswax, the proboscis and pollination. She'd rather draw, but she understands so much more than I think, and I love when she corrects my mistakes if I mispronounce or misidentify a body part or process of one of our creatures. Joanna has taught me more than I've taught her in so many ways.